Korean Featherweight Doo Ho Choi Reported Missing

By: Chris NelsonFeb 14, 2012

Less than one week before the biggest fight of his budding career,
featherweight prospect Doo Ho Choi
has reportedly gone missing.

Japanese promotion Deep announced Tuesday that the 20-year-old
South Korean has not been seen or heard from since Friday, Feb. 10.
A brief release offered scant details, but stated that Deep
officials today contacted local authorities to report Choi as a
missing person, citing concerns over his safety. Choi fights out of
Gumi MMA in Korea’s North Gyeongsang Province.

Following a breakout year in 2011 which included sensational
knockouts of veterans Mitsuhiro
Ishida and Nobuhiro
Obiya, Choi was scheduled to vie for the vacant Deep
featherweight title against Kazunori
Yokota at this Saturday’s “57 Impact.” However, due to the
young fighter’s reported disappearance, Deep has filled Choi’s spot
with onetime Shooto titleholder Hideki
Kadowaki.

Kadowaki, 35, will make his Deep debut against Yokota after an
11-year career spent mainly on the Shooto circuit. The Wajutsu
Keishukai grappler hit a four-fight losing skid after dropping his
143-pound world title to Takeshi
Inoue in 2008, but has since righted the ship with a win over
Yusuke
Yachi and a draw last April in his most recent outing.